, 1887-02-10
SOME QUEER OCCUPATIONS.

ANtN IOih ildS nOt dttdlltu Tit ulAiidt
distinction recently boosted by Paris of
maintaining a beggar factory for MAIN
ing little children, 80 as to render them
objects of pity. Neither has it yet
reached up to London in the possession of
Unnecessary stores - wherein every earth
ly thing in use by man is kept on sale.
But, after all, New York is big enough
to supply many ingenious persons with
very curious occupations. The scheme
OF our ''clean towel company" newly
started for supplying business offices with
clean towels and soap, we ought not to
boast of, since we borrowed their notion
from Chicago. We are alone, however,
in patiently permitting an audacious Teu-
ton near Chatham square to keep hand
organs in mischief by repairing them.
He assumes to replenish them with new
tunes, but, of course, that is a fiction;
for no hand organ was ever heard to play
any but bald headed and middle aged
music. New York maintains, also, at
least one establishment for fitting little
children for the stage and ballet.
Two courageous New Workers follow
the useful but unpoetic business of hang
ing their fellow citizens. They are not
prejudiced in favor of New Workers, but
are easily persuaded to hang men else
where throughout the Union. 1t is al
ways pretended that no one knows their
names and that only the sheriff OF this
county has their addresses. One is u
Hebrew, dubbed 'Isaacs, " and the other
Is IA German, called "Menzesheimer;'
but the city always Jumps them both
under the one name of Joseph b. Akin
son, and under that name they draw
their pay. They rig the gallows and
finally cut the rope. One other sanguinary
citizen, in Twenty-third street, swings u
shinglc declaring him to be ''Ths De-
stroyer Of Moths"
Four prosperous citizens earn their
livelihood as doctors for the lap dogs Of
rich women. As a rule, the only medi-
cine they use is starvation. They fling
the lear pets into barred boxes and de-
prive them of food for four days, having
found out that the usual trouble with pet
dogs is that they ARE fed extravagantly
and improperly. Just east of the Bowery,
in n tenement house, resides a man whose
business it is to rent himself and his
PAnch and Judy show to children's par
ties in the brownstone wards. A person
on the Bowery keeps six or eight girls
busy framing wreaths and pictures of
t~ombstones, whereon are set forth the
virtues of deceased New Workers. He
follows where the death notices in the
papers lead him. and works upon the
feelings Of the grief stricken families.
A rich Italian employs n horde of his
countrymen to trim or balance the loads
upon the scows of our street sweeping
department. These trimmers save for
him all the rags, fat, bone, metal and
other convertible refuse flung into the
householders' ash barrels. Another man
is making a fortune by carrying off all
the waste and refuse the city will not re-
move, such rs builders leavings, dirt
from cellar diggings and so on. The
builders pay him to take ii, and then he
sells il in the suburbs for filling in sunken
lands.
Only one man in town pretends TO keep
photographs of all the notable persons in
the world. There is not room for two in
the business. Another citizen sells to
public men and corporations clippings
from all the newspapers that mention
them at five cents u clipping. added TO u
subscription fee each year. Yet another
citizen hunts up coats Of arms and ped
igrecs for all those who think theirs have
been overlooked, or that they may get
them from families of the same, or nearly
the same, names rs their own. This il
quite English and therefore popular. II il
said that the carriage makers are giving
AWAY coats of arms like chromos. Law
yer Ed. Price, the e%x-pugilist, has u
monopoly Us the attorney for the Chinese.
The laundry1nen all seek him when in
trouble. and always pay him in silver dol
lars. The trade in painting black eyes
with u mixture OF six parts white paint
and one part red now boasts several es-
Establishments 1t il not popularizing the
black eye. because 1t only covers up the
scandal without removing the recollection
OF the accompanying clicking
One New Yorker has posted himself
about all the unclaimed estates in christen-
dom and thus profits by II weakness more
generous than most folks imagine. An
other New Yorker searches the streets at
night with IL lantern for coins and purses
dropped during the evening. A woman,
near the city hall. takes care of the
babies whose widowed mothers have gone
out to work. and who check them, like
umbrellas, in the morning and call for
them in the evening. Many women in
the east side tenement take care of u
baby or two for their neighbors, but this
downtown one is, | think. the only regu-
lar baby safe deposit company or storage
warehouse in town. There is no matri-
monial agency or husbands exchange
newspaper here Just now. There have
been many but all have failed. That
scheme is not so profitable as that of n
man | met the other day who told me he
trained valuable dogs to come straight
back to him as often ms he sold them
Julian Ralph in Mail and Express.